Page 8 of Falling Too Late

“Who the fuck is Wren?” Jon looked at me and then Chance. Chance shrugged and kept texting on his phone.

“Probably some chick he’s trying to bone.”

“No one,” I muttered, looking out across the parking lot, still hoping to see her face.

The two of them started to talk about another party they wanted to go to, but I tuned it out. Hanging out with the two of them had become a habit. We lived totally different lives and really didn’t have much in common, but Jon always made me feel welcome. He knew my mom worked a lot and was always inviting me to different things his family did together. I almost always declined. I didn’t want my mom feeling like she wasn’t doingenough. It never failed that there were some kind of clothing requirements for whatever thing they had going on.

I recognized something familiar in Wren that I didn’t see much at school. I wasn’t self-centered enough to think I was the only kid in school who didn’t come from money. There were lots of kids whose families struggled, but I could easily see it with Wren. And something about that was comforting. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone. I wondered if maybe her mom worked all the time, too, and if she spent time alone as much as I did.

Instead of following the sidewalk home like I normally did, I decided to walk Wren’s route along the canal. I walked for a while, wondering if maybe there would be a gate somewhere in the fence, figuring that her home butted up against the canal, so that was why it was easier to take this route than the sidewalk.

I had jumped a lot of fences before, but a wooden slat fence like this that was probably six feet high was hard to jump unless you got a running start. And there were only about fifteen or twenty feet between the edge of the canal and the fence. Even I would have a hard time jumping it, let alone Wren. I watched the water rushing in the opposite direction of me. The edge of the bank was steep and littered with rocks. I moved closer to the fence.

The canal curved hard to the left, and as I rounded the corner, I spotted a small figure with her hood up walking ahead of me.I immediately noticed the white sneakers with blood stains on the back.

“Wren?” I said once and then again, louder.??

She jumped and turned around quickly. Wide green eyes were on me. I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried to walk slowly to her. Embarrassed at how excited I was to finally see her.

“Hey, where have you been?” I tilted my head down to look at her. She didn’t look good. Paler than normal, and her eyes had dark half-moons under them.

“Uhm, I’m sorry, I don’t have the homework,” she said hesitatingly, and averted her eyes.

“I don’t care about that. Have you been sick?” She looked down, digging the toe of her shoe in the dirt.

“Yeah. I’ve had the. . .flu.”

“That sucks. Glad you are feeling better though. Did you go to school today?”

“No.” We fell into step next to each other, continuing to walk down the bank. “I just came out for a walk while I could.”

As we walked, I noticed the path became narrower. I went to reach for her without thinking, to put her on the side with the fence, but when she saw I was reaching for her, she jumped, rushing away from me.

“Wren, sto—” But it was too late. She had stepped too close to the edge of the bank and started sliding down. A shrill scream ripped from her throat.

Without a second thought, I dove for her as she was falling, grabbing her and pulling her to my chest while sitting down on the ground. We slid down the bank, but my foot caught on a rock only inches from the rushing water, stopping us.

I had one arm banded around her, keeping her back tight to me. “Wren, crawl up me and get to the top.” I rushed the words out. I could feel her heart racing in her chest and her nails biting into my forearm. I gritted my teeth, the rock I had almost my whole weight on starting to slip out from between the other rocks. “Hurry! Go!” If we fell in, the current would pull both of us under.

But she didn’t move. It was like she was frozen to me. With my free hand, I gripped a rock close by, trying to transfer some of my weight to it so the rock under my foot would stop moving. “Wren, come on, I got you, but you need to move.”

Something in her clicked finally, and she slowly turned in my arms, crawling up me and using my back to push herself up the rest of the way.??

With her safely at the top, I managed to adjust my footing to a different rock and turn, climbing my way out. Withevery lift of my foot, rocks tumbled into the canal, splashing back up. Wren took my hand, helping me the rest of the way.

We stared at each other, dragging in heavy breaths, when Wren turned around and heaved next to the fence. I got up and gathered her hair in my hands, rubbing her back like my mom did to me when I was little. My brows furrowed in confusion. I could tell she was wearing layers under the hoodie, the thick fabric obvious under my touch, but I could also feel her spine down the middle, ridged under my hand. It protruded more than what I thought was normal, even as she’s bent over.

She heaved up nothing but bile for another minute before she straightened.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeve. We were both covered in dust and mud.

“Don’t worry about it.” I brushed at the dust on my jeans. “You okay?” I looked her over.

She nodded, her arms wrapping around her middle. “Just still a little sick.”

“Want me to walk you home?” I glanced up at the sky. The sun streaming overhead cast an orange hue to everything.

“No.” The word was instant, rushed, and made me feel like I did something wrong. But she continued, “My, uh, mom’s boyfriend is kind of an asshole. I won’t hear the end of it if he sees you.”

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